Vanity Fair: Lance Armstrong Rides Again

So the rumors are true.
From Vanity Fair: "Lance Armstrong Rides Again"

With respect to the rumors that he might run for Governor: “Down the road, something like that might be possible. Probably in 2014.”

His intentions: “I’m going back to professional cycling. I’m going to try and win an eighth Tour de France.”

With respect to his age [38]: “Ultimately, I’m the guy that gets up. I mean, I get up out of bed a little slow. I mean, I’m not going to lie. I mean, my back gets tired quicker than it used to and I get out of bed a little slower than I used to. But when I’m going, when I’m on the bike—I feel just as good as I did before.”

The revenge factor: “There’s this perception in cycling that this generation is now the cleanest generation we’ve had in decades, if not forever. And the generation that I raced with was the dirty generation. And, granted, I’ll be totally honest with you, the year that I won the Tour, many of the guys that got 2nd through 10th, a lot of them are gone. Out. Caught. Positive Tests. Suspended. Whatever.… And so I can understand why people look at that and go, Well, [they] were caught—and you weren’t? So there is a nice element here where I can come with really a completely comprehensive program and there will be no way to cheat.”

Thomas Dekker to Garmin-Chipotle

Via SportWereld: Thomas Dekker onderweg naar Garmin-Chipotle.

I'm not going to try to pretend that I understood the whole article, but I was able to gather that Thomas Dekker will most likely be heading out Garmin-Chipotle way next year. Thomas Dekker, who was uninvited to his country's Olympic squad and subsequently broke with his team Rabobank, is an interesting choice for Garmin-Chipotle.

Garmin-Chipolte has a strict anti-doping policy & a stringent in-house testing program while Thomas Dekker, according to the UCI, returned an anomalous blood-test result. Please note that an anomalous blood-test result is not a positive/non-negative test result and that thus far, Thomas Dekker has never been suspended for a non-negative test result.

Women's World Champion & Non-Negative Drug Tests

From CyclingWeekly:

Current women's world champion Marta Bastianelli has tested positive for the banned substance flenfluramine, the Italian Cycling Federation confirmed on Monday. Traces of fenfluramine were found in a urine sample taken after Bastianelli finished third in the Europeean Under 23 road race championships on July 5 in Verbania, Italy.

As a side-note, I do believe it's fenfluramine. I wasn't able to find much information on flenfluramine but there was quite a bit of information about fenfluramine (aka Fen-Phen) on the web, including this Wikipedia article about it.


As another side-note, there are some differences in the translations of the statements released by the Italian Cycling federation. In the CyclingWeekly article, Renato di Rocco, the president of the Italian Cycling Federation, is quoted as saying:

She's been incredibly ingenious, she was positive for fenfluramine, that is in dieting products. She's obsessed with her weight. She only eats salad.

Whereas CyclingNews quotes Renato di Rocco as saying:

She's been incredibly naïve. Marta is really obsessed with her weight. She eats only salads.

There's quite a difference between being ingenious and being naïve, but without seeing the original quote, I am inclined to assume that the more accurate translation is "She's been incredibly naïve".

Dekker dropped from Olympic team

From DutchNews.nl:

Cyclist Thomas Dekker has lost his place in the Dutch Olympic team, reports ANP news service.

The 23-year-old cyclist is out of form and virtually asked to be removed from the team, Olympic coach Egon van Kessel told ANP.

Ouch.

Team Astana Terminates Vladimir Gusev

From Roadcycling.com:

The Astana Cycling Team management has terminated the contract of Russian cyclist Vladimir Gusev due to irregular values.
...
“Vladimir Gusev has been officially notified that he no longer represents Team Astana”, said General Manager Johan Bruyneel. “Though his results do not indicate the use of forbidden substances, Vladimir’s values exceeded the normal parameters established by Dr. Damsgaard and were not compliant with the strict agreement signed by all thirty riders. Our Kazakh sponsors have also been made aware of this decision and are fully supportive.”

There's also a brief bit about it over at l'Equipe but it's in French.

2009 Specialized Langsters

Remember back at the beginning of this month we posted a couple of pictures of some of the 2009 Specialized Langsters?
Well, now we have them all.
Enjoy!



The original Langster.



The Langster Seattle.



The Langster Tokyo.



The Langster Las Vegas.



The Langster San Francisco.



The Langster Monaco.



The Langster New York.



And perhaps the baddest of the bunch, the S-Works Langster.

2009 Specialized Bikes

Here's all the info on the 2009 Specialized bike line.

I told you today was going to be a special day.
We'll try to give you some highlights of the new bikes later on today & into this weekend.

Friday is going to be a very special day

Very special. You might want to wander on back over here tomorrow & check out the party.

More EPO: Ricardo Ricco

From L'Equipe: "Les urines de Riccardo Ricco présentent des traces d'EPO."

Hincapie on Ricco via CycingWeekly:

“I was definitely shocked. He's one of the big riders in peloton. It's a disappoint for sure. It's a clear disappointment but you got to look to the future and say we're catching the cheats. Maybe other sports aren't, I think our sport doing more than any other sport to clean up its act.”

I think Hincapie's statement that cycling is doing more than other sports to clean up its act is a pretty accurate. Ironically enough, I believe that the crackdown on doping in cycling will lead to cleaner riding but that it also strengthens the general publics perception of the cycling-doping link. While I don't want to come off as a cycling apologist, I think that there are sports in which doping is even more widespread but because the testing protocols are not as rigorous and dopers are not caught, those sports are not perceived as having doping issues.

Congressional report or no, I'd bet a dollar that there are more drugs in professional baseball or football than there are in professional cycling.

Félix Cárdenas Abandons the Tour

I would think that under different circumstances, Félix Cárdenas (Barloworld) abandoning the Tour in today's 11th stage would pass by unremarked; However, Barloworld seems to be struggling as a team.

Multiple crashes, a non-negative doping test result, more crashes.

It's hard not to notice when one of their riders abandons, especially when that rider, Félix Cárdenas, was Moisés Dueñas' roommate.

Moisés Dueñas & EPO: Positive or Non-Negative

From CyclingWeekly:

Team Barloworld has revealed that Moises Dueñas was caught with a "considerable amount of banned medicines" in his room during a search by French Police. The 27 year-old Spaniard was taken into police custody in Tarbes on Wednesday morning after police searched his room following the announcement that he had failed a doping test for EPO after the stage four time trial in Cholet."

From Cyclingnews:

Spanish rider Moisés Dueñas has become the second rider to register a non-negative test for banned blood booster erythropoietin at the Tour de France. The results came from a sample taken from the Barloworld rider after the Grand Tour's first time trial, Stage 4 on July 8 in Cholet, according to head of the French Anti-doping Agency (AFLD) Pierre Bordry.

According to CyclingWeekly Dueñas' test result was positive, whereas according to Cyclingnews Dueñas' test was non-negative. The net result, be it positive or non-negative, is that Moisés Dueñas (Barloworld) was pulled from the Tour de France & has been suspended from Barloworld.

ProTour Exodus

From the Guardian:

All teams are to leave the International Cycling Union's elite ProTour series, the 17 teams on the Tour de France said on Tuesday. "It has been decided unanimously not to renew the ProTour licences for the 2009 season," the teams said in a joint statement.
...
"If everybody decides so, I can't imagine Astana will not follow," Astana chief press officer Philippe Maertens told Reuters.

The 18 current UCI ProTour Teams: AG2R La Mondial, Astana, Bouygues Telecom, Caisse D'Epargne, Cofidis, Credit Agricole, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Française des Jeux, Gerolsteiner, Lampre, Liquigas, Quick Step, Rabobank, Saunier Duval-Scot, Silence-Lotto, Team Columbia, Team CSC Saxo Bank, Team Milram.

Beltran Video

Here's a telling video of Beltran trying to evade the doping control squad.

Beltran Positive for EPO

Manuel Beltran (Liquigas) has tested positive for EPO. Testing of his A sample taken July 5th, after the first stage of the Tour de France, indicated the presence of EPO in his system.
Source: L'equipe.fr, Damian Ressiot.


How do you suppose Dorel feels about this given that teams face a €100,000 fine if a link can be established between a rider who returns a positive doping test and his team. Furthermore, Dorel had just renewed their sponsorship agreement with the Liquigas team. What are the potential implications of this positive test with respect to the team's sponsorship?

Already there's the potential that because of this Liquigas may not ride La Vuelta a España.

More on Electronic Dura-Ace

VeloNews has a brief article about the electronic Dura-Ace time trial bits that were spotted at the tour. There's not all that much more info at VeloNews than there was in our short snippet on the electronic Dura-Ace time trial parts, but there are some great pictures.



Our brief bit about the electronic Dura-Ace time trial parts is here.
VeloNews' brief bit about them here & their photos of the parts are here.

More About Tubeless Road

We've mentioned Specialized's new release of their S-Works Turbo Tubeless road tire and we have also discussed Campagnolo's production of their new 2-Way Fit wheels for 2009.

There's now a little more information about both, this time courtesy of Bicycle Retailer:

"The tubeless wheel will use a Campy rim with the exact outer profile of the ALX alloy clincher. What changes is the internal rim shape has been made to conform to the tubeless road standard,” said Josh Knoll, who handles equipment research and development for Specialized. “This shape will still allow riders the ability to run a normal tire and tube set up if they so desire. Options, options, options."

So, Specialized S-Works Turbo Tubeless road tire will be made for them by Hutchinson and their tubeless rims will be made for them by Campagnolo.

Amtel-Vredestein Tires

Sibur Russian Tyres has purchased a 70% stake of Amtel-Vredestein for about $370 million.

Amtel-Vredestein, a Dutch manufacturer of bicycle and auto tires, had been struggling to turn a profit and to retain market share over the past few years. Sibur's Russian Tyres controls a little over 30% of the Russian tire market and by acquiring Amtel-Vredestein will become one of the top ten tire manufacturers world wide.

Given that Russia currently is, population-wise, 9th in the world and that Russia has seen considerable economic growth over the past decade, Sibur's acquisition of Vredestein should work out well.

To Be Discontinued

Campagnolo will be discontinuing their Mirage and Xenon gruppos for 2009. No information yet on what might be taking their places in the Campagnolo family.

Goldilocks & the Three Gruppos

Here at Bikepedia, one of the first things about the 2009 gruppos that we discussed at the water cooler was the shape & ergonomics of the new Double Tap, Ergopower Ultra Shift, & STI shift/brake hoods. We, like every other rider out there, had our own distinct hood-shape preference, including some retrogrouchy comments about how maybe we liked the old 8spd levers the best.

"This one's too long."
"That one's too short."
"Oh, if they would do X, Y, & Z to the hood, this one would be just right."

Now, we don't want to be the only ones having fun, so get your friends together, take a look at the pictures below, and let the fun begin!







The 2009 Sram Red hood.


























The 2009 Campagnolo Super Record hood.



















For comparison: The 2008 Campagnolo Record hood (image size is much smaller!)














The 2009 Shimano Dura-Ace hood.






















For comparison: The 2008 Shimano ST-7800 Dura-Ace hood (image size is much smaller!)









So, what do you all think?

Further Discussions Regarding EPO Testing

Cologne lab responds to EPO study.

We mentioned this study in our brief post about the Landis decision on Monday. The original International Herald Tribune article: "Study shows problems with Olympic-style tests".

The International Herald Tribune has also published what we assume to be a follow-up to their first article: "IOC says Beijing anti-doping program will be the most comprehensive in sports history".